The moon and the man with the suitcase

Crazily it shone – the moment that formed his desire. Somewhere in the largeness of the world, evening was coming to a close but there was still the night to anticipate. Something with which to instrument his life on the unmasked pages of his room. Except for the suitcase he has completely filled with unfinished words, he leaves everything behind – the faces, the endless days piled like knots on top of each other, the clocks, the unfinished distances.

The night seems to have given the hour a strange permission. Inside his mind he lugs along a flickering. A point of fine adjustment, to meld with the voices. A time of mood plantations.

He sits on the suitcase, waits by the side of the road, transfixed by the shadow of a dog on the wall. He knows that the suitcase can only be opened elsewhere, under the gaze of an unquestioning moon. No other documentation will be required.

Charles D'Anastasi was born in Malta and came to Australia at the age of 15. He lives in Melbourne. He has a particular interest in the prose poem. His chapbook, 'The unreliable harbour' was published by the Melbourne Poets Union in 2006.